(Part 1) Can A Christian Lose Their Salvation?

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”

The definition of eternal life is found in John 10:28 which states, “they will never perish.” The reason is given in verse 29, Jesus declares that all believers are safe in the hands of God the Father and no one is able to snatch them away from God, meaning to trick, convince to leave the truth, lure away through worldly lust and pleasures, trials, hardship and so forth. No human or fallen angel will have the strength to convince you to leave the Lord by any means.

Paul was convinced of this by the Holy Spirit, in Romans 8:33-39 it says, 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ?Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.37 No, in all these things we are more than victoriousthrough Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers,39 height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Here, some think that the phrase “love of God” in verse 39 is a general term that means God loves us all, believers and nonbelievers. That interpretation is incorrect in this context because it’s talking about Christians. According to Jude 1:21 which says, keep yourselves in the love of God, expecting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.

“Keep yourselves” means to be obedient to the Word of God which a true believer who has the Holy Spirit will be kept in right standing with the Lord as seen in Jude 1:24 which says, 24 Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen. The phrase “love of God” refers to a person that’s born again. The word “expecting” here means that we can trust Jesus’ promises found in scripture that we can expect on the day of our death to be with Him forever.

The promises are found in these verses:

Titus 1:1-2

1 Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to build up the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

1 John 2:25

And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life. (Clearly, it isn’t eternal if you can lose it)

John 6:37-40

37 Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Matthew 24:13

But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Who are the ones who endure to the end? The answer is found in Philippians 1:6 that says, ” I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” The believers will endure to the end because they are empowered to do so by the Spirit of God who indwells them and keeps them safe.

1 John 3:6,9

6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

A person that’s truly born again is a changed man/woman and their desires are now for the will of God. How can a person revert back to something that they are not? It’s like vomiting and somehow you take delight in scooping that same vomit into your plate.

1 John 5:18

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

The reason we cannot abandon God is He has sealed us with the promise of His Spirit who will transform us into the image of Christ, keeping us from living a continuous sinful lifestyle and protecting us from falling away through the enticement of the evil one. The Holy Spirit lives in us to make sure we continue in the righteousness of God through various discipline and convictions to bring us to repentance.

1 John 2:19

19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

Those who claimed to have been followers of Jesus Christ and yet apostatized were never saved in the first place as also seen in Matthew 7:22-23 which says, 22 On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’

As you can see Jesus never knew them, in other words, they never had a relationship with Jesus Christ, they were never saved as evident with fruits of unholiness. A person who claims to be a Christian but lives like the world without repenting is an unregenerated person and void of any evidence that the Spirit of God dwells in them.

Thank you for this. A very balanced presentation. Indeed, the Father will never let us go. One verse that struck me though: “Keep yourselves in the love of God….” (Jude 1:21). Some people think repeating after someone the “sinners prayer” will magically save them from eternal salvation; but the evidence/fruit of the Holy Spirit reveals who is truly God’s and who never ever was.

Thank you for your comment munyingnying :). I agree with you that the sinner’s prayer doesn’t save anyone but faith in Jesus Christ is what saves a person. If the person believed in Jesus Christ by the conviction of the Holy Spirit before he did the sinners prayer, he was saved, not because of the prayer but because of faith in Jesus. Some can confess faith in Jesus and not truly have believed and are not saved. In the same way, some say the sinner’s prayer and never had really believed in Christ and are not saved.

Just because the person says a sinners prayer or confesses belief in Christ does not make them a Christian, without true saving faith that person will not be saved. True saving faith will be evident by their change in behavior and character to be Christ-like. Regardless if the person says the sinners prayer or just says that they believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior, time will truly tell if the Holy Spirit resides in their hearts because those who are truly His will produce fruit.

Interesting you brought up the “Sinner’s prayer”. I actually happen to have one on my ABOUT page. When I prayed my own, which no one gave me the format, the Holy Spirit was doing the work of convicting me and I was brought to a pivotal moment in my life were I had to surrender my way of doing things.

You say, “Some people think repeating after someone the ‘sinner’s prayer’ will magically save them from eternal salvation,” maybe lead them to salvation, not save them ‘from’ it. Also, as Spaniard mentioned, it is not the prayer itself that makes one saved, but the choice attached to them deciding that they acknowledge they want to give their lives to follow Christ. By making their decision, it only shows they have faith that spurred them into the decision. If you didn’t have faith in Jesus to begin with, you won’t ask him to be your savior.

Ultimately, no one knows the person’s heart but God, and time is the revealer if true conversion ever occured as evidenced by their fruit as Jesus mentioned in Luke 6:44 “For each tree is known by its own fruit.” People assume it is the prayer that saves them, but people need to remember it is their faith in God’s promise to “Call on Him” for salvation as evidence of their faith.

True, no one knows the person’s heart but God. Sometimes I wonder, when churches/mission groups announce staticstics of “how many people came to the Lord” resulting from their one-off crusade/event–how accurate could that be? For many years I thought I was a Christian (despite my rebellion against God)–until He broke me, over and over again and I was down on my knees, finally acknowledging His lordship.

@munyingnying – You can question the validity of the statistic, but in that arena, only God knows. Of course we will not have the full knowledge of how a person lives after the fact they have come to the altar but Jesus did give us a clear outline how to distinguish those who truly belong to Him by lining up their profession of faith, how they live their lives and theology with Scripture.

For those we will never see again, we can take their profession at face value but it is NOT our job to generalize and question their salvation unless they give us a reason to, i.e. expressing a continual lifestyle of sin with no repentance whatsoever, an outward expression of what’s truly in their heart (out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, in blogging’s case, write) through foul language in a casual manner, expressing their adherence to theology that clearly contradicts what is revealed to us in Scripture.

It is good indeed that you have come to the Lord, and that is His desire, for EVERYONE to come to repentance. Our job is to sow the seed and proclaim the salvation that we ourselves have obtained through grace by faith; the result, we leave up to God

Download free Biblical Tracts

Follow Spiritual Minefield via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Salvation

If you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I encourage you today to do so. Repent and believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and took your punishment upon Himself, was buried and on the third day rose from the grave. If you give your life to Jesus by faith in His sacrifice, He will give you eternal life.

Some religions like Mormonism, Islam, and Catholicism, all claim that they have received new revelation.

A message to all believers in Christ Jesus

The desire of my heart is to reveal Satan’s tactics and how one can overcome his schemes. I want to encourage you to fight the good fight of faith. Putting on the full armor of God, by way of reading the Word of God and praying every day so that you may be strengthened and be transformed into the image of Christ for good works.

-SpaniardVIII

Do you have a question about a certain passage in scripture?

Go to “BIBLICAL Q&A FORM” that’s next to “HOME” on the toolbar. Fill out a very short form and you will get an answer within one to two days.

A Brief Background

I grew up in a family that to this day still does Santeria (the raw form of Witchcraft). Jesus saved me from becoming one even though I participated as a young child under my mother's authority. As a child, I used to see literally, demons walking in my house and it used to scare the heck out of me. I would write down more of my experience but it would be too long. The desire in my heart is to reveal Satan's tactics and how one can overcome his schemes. I want to encourage you to fight the good fight of faith. Putting on the full armor of God by way of reading the Bible and praying every day so that you may be transformed into the image of Christ for good works. If you haven't made Jesus your Lord and Savior, I pray that you do because there is no other way to make it to heaven as seen in John 14:6 which says, "Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" If you believe that He died for your sins and on the third day He rose from the grave you will be saved. Ask Jesus today, to forgive you of all of your sins and to save you and He will.